With traffic there are two real kinds - free and paid. I always recommend diversifying and testing more than one source, but make sure it is as targeted as possible. More often than not, I've had people come to me and show me a site they're promoting but they say they just can't get it to work, and that their site must be a flop. When I ask them what they've done, a lot of the time they tell me they've bought something like 10,000 hits for $9.99 somewhere, or from fiverr.com. DO NOT do that! Traffic needs to be targeted for it to convert. The most targeted traffic I've found is organic traffic from people actively searching for what you're offering. That can take time to build up though, but it's very worth it. In terms of speed though, the best (and quickest) paid method I've found is solo ads. The funnel we've developed is one that's been tested to work with solo ad traffic. The reason being that most solo ad lists are quite general in nature, so the squeeze page offer fits this quite well. For that homepage funnel, you can feel free to use the same email copy that I use here: http://www.richard-legg.com/soloquickcash.txt (Just change out the links to your own domain) The first one time offer for this funnel is also quite low priced which helps conversions, and then there are two higher priced upsells directly after too. Even with solo ads there is a wide variety of quality in terms of traffic, so there are a few things you can do to maximize your chances of getting a good return on investment. The best kinds of solo ads are going to be ones that contain buyer leads - not just freebie leads. To find buyer solo ads, you'll typically have to work a little more, but the results are worth it. There are literally hundreds of products for sale on networks such as clickbank, jvzoo etc. For any of these products that seem like a good match to your own funnel, then you can approach the seller of that product to see if they would be willing to sell you a solo ad to their customer list. This is the most valuable kind of list you can find, so definitely take the time to look for these options.
Outside of looking for buyer list solos, one of the main sources I use for solos is http://www.udimi.com (you should be able to sign up as a free guest user to buy solos) The great thing about this site is you can search people based on how many clicks they deliver etc as well see their feedback (much like ebay) from previous customers. (Once you actually have a decent amount of leads through solo ads, you can also then start adswapping with those leads with other people on their partner site: www.safeswaps.com. This way instead of paying for the traffic, you get it for free, (in exchange for mailing out the other partners free offer.) Using just this site I've been able to add over 50,000 people to my list in the past year Here's the link to an interview where I explain how I did this that will hopefully help: https://s3.amazonaws.com/richardlegg/adswaps.mp3 With any kind of paid traffic, there is no guarantee on ROI, and every source is going to be different. Also, it's hard to tell from just 1-2 small solos what your average results are going to be like. Sometimes people try one solo, and they make some sales, but not a profit, and then assume that it doesn't work. But the truth is to get an accurate average, you need to take a larger sample size. For example... One solo might make you a $9 sale... and so may seem like a bad result. On the other hand, another solo may make you a $9 sale, but that person may also buy the $97 upsell, and then the 2nd $97 upsell giving you $203... so that's a massive difference. When you take the average, that's $9 from one, plus $203 from another, so each solo gave an average of $106. Here's a screenshot of one of my tracking campaigns that uses this funnel: http://screencast.com/t/umh2yyqzapzi You can see there I've had over 35,000 clicks, and generated over 13,000 leads.
But the important number is the gross profit per click which is $0.75 That means, if I'm buying solos at $0.30-$0.40 per click, then on average I'm making a profit (plus building a nice size list at the same time). Again, I can't guarantee any results, your results will differ - you may do better, you may do worse - because every provider is different, but what I'm trying to show you is that this funnel is designed to convert well for solo traffic in general. (Plus those results above don't include the backend sales generated from other integrated offers, or other email promotions - it's just a way I use to measure how much immediate revenue is generated from the traffic) A lot of times it can be more cost effective to buy a few small solos rather than one big one, for a couple of reasons. If someone is sending 1000 clicks, it may take them a couple of emails to hit that target, so it's very unlikely you'll get any extra traffic. However, someone sending just 100 clicks, could easily send 120-140 or more... so that way you can get an extra 20-40% of clicks for free. So 10x100 click solos would usually get you more traffic than 1x1000 click solo. It's not uncommon to get 1200 to 1400 clicks when buying 10x100 click solos. So all of that extra traffic is going to help lower your effective cost-per-click. For example, if you're paying 30c per click, 10x100 click solos would cost you $300. But if you end up getting 1400 clicks, your effective cpc is just 22c per click. Also, when you spread out with smaller solos like this, you also spread your risk. If you have 10 different 100 click solos, you can afford to have 1-2 that don't work out that well, and still get good results. But if you buy 1x1000 click solo, if that turns out to be a bad list or something, then it's a big loss. So solos/swaps are two great methods that get quick results but there are some things you can do to make sure you get the best results... One thing to consider is that there are a LOT of solo sellers now who are over charging and under delivering.
(This is another reason why I recommend that site because buyers can leave feedback for others to see) By that I mean that they will send out your link in a rotator with a bunch of other links, and use a completely generic swipe. This means that people clicking on your link don't know what they're clicking on. That's not a REAL solo ad. A solo ad, by definition should be your ad (i.e. your swipe copy) sent out solo (i.e. on it's own) Some people will even put your links in non-email traffic such as exit pop ups or twitter posts etc, just to inflate clicks without actually having to deliver real traffic. So to get the best results when you buy any solos, make sure that you ask if they'll (a) send just your link out and not a rotator, (b) use your swipe and not some generic one of their own just to get clicks. (c) provide you with a typical breakdown of their leads by country (you should aim for at least 70% coming from USA, UK, Canada and Australia) (d) only send you traffic from emails that contain your swipe (and not 'thank you page' or banner clicks) If they want to charge you extra for doing this, or try to explain away why they do it their way, just don't buy from them. It means they wouldn't have sent you proper 'solo ad' traffic in the first place. A solo ad should be your ad, with your link i.e. SOLO. Nothing else counts. (The same rules should apply if you do swaps too) I don't want to freak you out by saying this. The truth is, solo ad traffic (when it's good quality and targeted) is some of the best traffic you can find. But like anything, there are people out there who will try to rip you off, so my hope is this information will help you avoid those. Hope this helps! Richard
Here are some other tips for solos in general that you can use for any other promotions/funnels: - It's often best to just ask for email address on the optin form, as asking for the name also can lower optin rates. - Most of the vendors will only accept free offers meaning you'll have to send the traffic to a squeeze page rather than an actual sales page. (You can have your sales page after that) - An exit popup for another offer can help increase your optin rate anywhere up to 10% more. - Make your free offer broad appeal to increase conversions. This helps if vendors are being sneaky and sending generic swipes - you'll want to have a fairly generic offer. - Using a low ticket offer after purchase typically gets better results. These leads are used to seeing the freebie-to-offer pitch, so make it something irresistible so your offer stands out. (Hint: Offer a double money back guarantee) - A lower ticket offer (typically) increases conversions, so you get more buyers seeing the rest of your funnel, meaning more chance to generate revenue. - Often a video salesletter will outperform a text salesletter - it gives you a chance to build value before viewers can see the price and make a decision. - Often using a delayed buy button on the video salesletter will increase conversions too. - Don't be afraid to offer complimentary products as upsells/downsells etc, so long as they are relevant to the main offer. - Where possible, test and track everything. Different traffic sources will yield different results, so knowing the good and bad will help you maintain a good ROI. - If looking to buy a solo from a vendor, try to sign up to their list in order to see the kind of emails they send, how frequent, how valuable etc. If they send 10+ emails a day, from fake addresses, with misleading subject lines, you can bet that the clicks you get from them are going to be pretty worthless. - There is a facebook group (at time of writing) where people can post results of solos that got them sales here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/salestestimonials/ This can be a good starting point to find vendors, but again, make sure and pre-qualify them before you purchase.